Is your smartphone spying on you? [Updated]

If you’re an Android smartphone user, you’ve likely seen the warnings that spyware targeting that platform is legion, a claim that may be overblown. But for millions of Android, BlackBerry and Nokia users, the real threat to their privacy may be coming from authorized software installed on the phone by the handset maker. [Update 12.1.2011:Nokia and RIM deny Carrier IQ is installed on their devices, TechRadar reports.]

Last week, Android app developer Trevor Eckhart warned that software from a company called Carrier IQ was transmitting all kinds of data back to the company – even information which is entered into secure websites.

But now Eckhart has released a video showing exactly what the software is logging and reporting to Carrier IQ, and the information is remarkably detailed. From Wired:

The video shows the software logging Eckhart’s online search of “hello world.” That’s despite Eckhart using the HTTPS version of Google which is supposed to hide searches from those who would want to spy by intercepting the traffic between a user and Google.

Cringe as the video shows the software logging each number as Eckhart fingers the dialer.

“Every button you press in the dialer before you call,” he says on the video, “it already gets sent off to the IQ application.”

From there, the data — including the content of text messages — is sent to Carrier IQ’s servers, in secret.

Here’s the video, which is shot using a stock HTC EVO 4G smartphone:

So how many phones have Carrier IQ’s software? The company helpfully posts to its site’s home page a running counter of the number of devices on which it’s installed. The number below was from 8 a.m. this morning

Is this software on your smartphone? Eckhart has created an Android app that can check, but it’s not available from the Android Market – you’ll have to sideload it directly from the developer’s own site. Eckhart notes that it’s found on HTC and Samsung Android phones. Samsung phones offer a hard-to-access way to turn it off, while HTC does not.